US rabbi asked to address Vatican Nostra Aetate celebration

Vatican City, Oct 26, 2005 / 12:00 am (CNA).- Rabbi David Rosen, the American Jewish Committee’s international director of interreligious affairs, will be the Jewish speaker at the official Vatican celebration of the 40th anniversary of Nostra Aetate Oct. 27.

“As we celebrate this revolutionary transformation in the Catholic Church’s teaching about Jews, Judaism and Israel, we must urge that these teachings become an essential component of the training of priests,” said Rabbi Rosen. “Nostra Aetate must be woven more profoundly into the fabric of the Church.” Rabbi Rosen is also president of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations with Jewry, and Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, Emeritus archbishop of Paris, will also address the assembly.

The American Jewish Committee said the rabbi will focus on Vatican-Israel relations, especially the significance of the recently established Bilateral Commission for Dialogue between the Vatican and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.

On a separate occasion next week, Cardinal Kasper will present him also with the Mt. Zion Award 2005 on Nov. 3 at the Dormition Abbey on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. Both clerics will be participating in the Hebrew University’s conference marking the Nostra Aetate anniversary. AJC is a cosponsor of the conference.